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Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Senior Syrian official in US and co-operating with intelligence agencies

Senior Syrian official in US and co-operating with intelligence agencies

Guardian understands that US intelligence officials helped Jihad Makdissi to flee, though details of journey are unknown

Former Syrian foreign
ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi fled to the US earlier this month
after first crossing into Lebanon. Photograph: Louai Beshara/AFP/Getty
Images

The Syrian government's former spokesman, Jihad Makdissi, is
co-operating with US intelligence officials who helped him flee to
Washington almost one month ago, the Guardian understands.
Makdissi became one of the most prominent regime defectors in late November when he left Beirut after first crossing from Syria. The Guardian reported at the time that he had fled for the US, possibly in return for asylum. This has now been confirmed.
The
latest development comes after almost a month of debriefings, which
have helped intelligence officials build a picture of decision-making in
the inner sanctum of the embattled regime.
Syrian
officials have denied that Makdissi has defected, saying he had instead
taken three months of administrative leave. However, at the time of his
departure, Hezbollah's television network in Beirut – not known to be
out of step with the regime line – announced that the spokesman's views
had strayed from official positions and that he had been fired.
The state department did not respond immediately to requests for comment, and the CIA was unwilling to discuss the story.
Makdissi is the most senior member of the regime to defect since Syria's prime minister, Riyad Hijab, fled with his family to Jordan in August.
While not a member of the inner sanctum, Makdissi was central to
shaping the regime's message and privy to many of its most sensitive
communications.
Makdissi, a former senior diplomat at the
Syrian embassy in London, worked closely with foreign minister, Walid
al-Mouallem and information minister, Adnan Mahmoud, whom he dealt with
regularly as security steadily decayed over the past 18 months.
Despite
the worsening situation, the Syrian security establishment has remained
largely intact and committed to defeating the armed insurrection that
aims to topple it. Key decision makers in Syria are largely drawn from
the Alawite sect, to which Bashar al-Assad belongs.
Intelligence
officials in states that are hostile to the regime are not known to
have close links to the inner sanctum. Until recently, debriefings of
Hijab and former general, Manaf Tlass, both Sunni Muslims, have been
instrumental in shaping western views of how decisions are taken in
Syria and the influence of foreign stakeholders.
Details of
Makdissi's journey to the US are not yet known, although Britain has
previously denied that he arrived in the UK after fleeing Beirut.
Lebanese officials had previously suggested he was either staying with
his family in a Christian area near Beirut or had been captured and
returned to Syria.